Delaware State’s Most Explosive Wide Zone “PRO”

By Mike Kuchar with Nyema Washington
Offensive Coordinator
Delaware State University

“We want to freeze that C gap player as much as possible. Let the defensive end free and then hit him with a pass behind him. It freezes the defense.”
- Nemo Washington, Offensive Coordinator, Delaware State University

When former NFL great Desean Jackson took over the post at Delaware State, he knew had to fix things quickly. The Hornets had won only seven games the last three seasons and were pretty stagnant on offense. So, the former All-Pro wide receiver made it his crusade to transform a once anemic offense into a scoring machine. So, another former Eagle legend Duce Staley connected him with an up-and-coming rising young coach named Nyema (Nemo) Washington. Soon enough, Jackson hired Washington away from a nameless program- Wheeling University- and into a well-recognized staff with over 60 years of NFL playing experience. Coach Washington was quickly given the reins of the offense and began immediately to preach an explosive play culture. He knew that the Hornets had athletes, but he wanted to give them something tangible, a metric that they can chase each week which would lead to success.

That metric took shape in the form of generating more explosive plays, which were runs of 10 yards or more and passes of 15 yards or more. His goal was to produce at least seven a game. It wasn’t an arbitrary number. Coach Washington did his research and knew that five explosives per game typically generated over 20 points a game. And if he can get his unit to produce seven explosive plays per game, that would typically generate over 35 points per game. He aimed high and decided ten would be the number and he made it his crusade to message it daily. He preached it to his players, hung the number in the locker room, continually reinforcing his messaging.

The players then started to embrace the culture and preach it themselves to the point where they would count each one themselves during the course of the game. “We’re getting close, Coach,” is something he would continually hear them say. Seven explosives became ten and then ten became twelve. Del State finished second in the country at the FCS level averaging 12.5 explosive plays per game and what do you know? They averaged over 32 points per game enroute to an 8-win season.

Of course, this didn’t happen organically, it happened intentionally. For Coach Washington it came with building first a scheme and then designing ways to protect it. The offense was built around wide zone run, which fit perfectly with the skill set of running back James Jones. Then, the rest of the season became about studying how defenses were defending it and building answers from there. For Coach Washington, those answers took shape in the form of what he termed “PRO’s” (Pass/Run/Options) off the wide zone play. It was a scheme that produced the highest number of explosives this season.

Inside this report, you’ll see how Delaware State’s Nemo Washington:

• Built an offensive system designed tomanufacture explosive plays every week, not wait for them
• Used wide zone as a tool toforce defensive overreactions — then attacked the space those reactions created
• Created pass answers that consistently hitexplosives behind fast-flow run fits
• Turned one explosive-play goal into aclear offensive identity players could chase and execute
• Structured QB reads so explosives came fromdefender leverage, not perfect throws
• Protected explosive throws off run action whilekeeping the offense clean and on schedule
• Scaled a small menu of PRO concepts intomultiple explosive answers as defenses adjusted
• Converted explosive-play volume directly intopoints, momentum, and wins

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